Cupid's Arrow
by FAnime721
Summary: A quick-write one-shot about Arkos, and what could have happened had Ruby Deus-Ex-ed just a moment earlier. Happy Valentine's Day.


**Hey guys, thanks for giving this a shot: in short, I decided to post a poll among my friends, and my general FaceBook group, to see what ship the community wanted me to do a one-shot about. The poll was up for about 24 hours, starting yesterday at noon, and in the end, Arkos won, so… yeah. It was meant to be a challenge (I'm starting this at about 4:30 PM PST, and I only have a couple of hours to cram this in), so it's not exactly of highest quality. There's a bit of a darker theme to this, so be prepared. Enjoy.**

 **...**

 **...**

"Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked the woman before her, head held high, in the hopes that her sacrifice would ensure Jaune's survival.

Cinder frowned down at her, the hint of small tears in her eyes.

"Yes."

Standing up, she summoned her bow and pulled back the string, aiming directly for her chest.

Pyrrha could only look back at her foolishness in the past. How she had rushed in, believing that she could single handedly stop Cinder. The woman who killed the previous Fall Maiden. The woman who killed Ozpin*, and initiated the fall of Beacon. How stupid it all was.

With a loud swish, the arrow flew at her. Time slowed down, the arrow staring her in the face for an unbearably long moment. The pain raced up and down her body, her eyes crossing from lack of stability. She could feel the blood seeping into her lungs, forcing her to cough and gasp for breath as she tried to pull out the arrow.

Cinder slowly began walking over, hand extended, with the beginning of a smile on her face.

Pyrrha closed her eyes, ready to accept her own fate.

"Goodbye… Jaune…"

" **PYRRHA!** "

From shock, both women looked to the side and saw Ruby, silver light emanating from her eyes, which soon surrounded her, and shot out in every direction.

...

The remnants of team JNPR could only wait for the doctors to break the news. Ren sat silently, Stormflower clutched in his hands; Nora was rocking back and forth in her chair, demolishing what looked like a ten-gallon bucket of ice cream; and Jaune was on the verge of tears.

"How could I have been so stupid…" he muttered to himself, head in his hands. "How… how? HOW?!"

"Jaune, please, take it easy." Ren said calmly, moving up from his chair to sit next to him. "The doctors are doing everything they can right now, and you did everything you could to prevent this, so"

"NO!"

Ren sat back, shocked to hear this much anger emanating from his usually level-headed teammate.

"No…" Jaune repeated. "I didn't do everything I could… I failed her… I could've gone and gotten help… I could've stopped her, and sent her back like she did to me… I could've gone and fought Cinder myself… I could've"

He was interrupted by Ren slapping him across the face.

"You COULDN'T have fought Cinder, because then we would not only STILL be missing a teammate and a friend, but the city of Vale might also have fallen."

"But, Pyrrha"

"Would have fought the same way if she thought you were in danger." Nora finished for him, also moving over to be with her team. "She did what she thought was best… she minimized casualties, and held off Cinder long enough for Ruby to finish the job. She wouldn't have had it any other way."

Jaune looked at his team with dread, knowing that they must have been just as rattled as he was if Nora began thinking rationally.

"Party for 'Nikos'?" a voice called out. The three of them snapped out of their stupor and looked over to the nurse, who motioned for them to follow. After walking down various hallways for what seemed like minutes on end, they stopped in front of an ordinary door, identical to the others that they had walked past.

"Now, we did everything we could… and her condition is currently stabilizing."

The remnants of JNPR sighed in relief, only to take in a sharp breath when the nurse held up a hand to continue.

"However. We've had to put her in a coma. Whatever that arrow was laced with had some nasty side effects."

"But… she's alive?" Jaune heard himself ask timidly.

"For now. We've just finished, so you're free to come inside, although there's not much you can do at the moment."

The door opened, and they filed inside, only to end up seeing the remains of was once a healthy Huntress. Pyrrha's skin was charred in some places, and most of her bones were showing; her hair was cut short, and she was attached to an oxygen tank, in addition to various IVs. But Jaune could only bring himself to stare at her face: once flawless, it now gave a sunken appearance.

"Like I said. Nasty side effects."

The team could only stare at their teammate, when the nurse asked "Do you want some time alone?"

Jaune couldn't recognize his response, but he heard the door close, leaving the three of them to begin falling apart over the near loss of their friend.

...

"Hey, Pyrrha… brought you some more flowers… you like daisies, right?"

The ECG standing next to Pyrrha's bed continued to beep at the same rate it had been every time Jaune stopped by to visit.

With a sigh, he walked over to the vase on the side table and pulled out the wilting lilies from his last visit just a few days before.

"No change, huh? That's fine… we're willing to wait."

The machine continued to beep.

"Honestly, I've kinda been running out of ideas for flowers… and it doesn't help that the prices just keep skyrocketing ever since the borders were tightened."

More beeps.

"Maybe I could get something else next time… maybe chocolates? Oh, never mind. I forgot, you're not much for sweets."

The sound of the machine continues to fill the room.

"Oh, I almost forgot! I heard that Ruby and Yang were discharged yesterday! The doctors decided that they were stable enough to move back to their home on Patch, with their dad. Heh, say what you will about Vacuo being a thieves' den, but they sure know their medicine."

He continued to stare at her unmoving face, barely noticing his scroll buzzing in his pocket until he looked down at his pocket.

"Yeah?"

" _It's me. Where are you?_ "

"Oh, Ren. I'm… uh…"

" _With Pyrrha?_ "

He stayed silent, guilty about forgetting their deal to check out some of their nearby friend's towns.

"Look, I'm sorry, I just forgot, I'll"

" _No, no, I understand, take all the time you need. We've all been missing a piece of ourselves since the Fall, and reaction to loss can vary._ "

"I'm sorry, I really just forgot. You're still my team, and… we have to look ahead. I'll be there though. Don't wait for me, I'll catch up."

" _You're sure you want to come?_ "

"I'll be there."

" _If you're sure. We'll wait for you at Neptune's house._ "

The scroll beeped once to signal that the call ended, and he sighed, bringing his attention once again to his partner.

"I'm sorry I can't stay longer. I'll be back soon though…"

With one final look back to the bed, he got up and exited the room.

...

"Jaune… c'mon, get up."

"Wha…"

"Jaune, get up."

"Who… Pyrrha?"

"No… just me."

He blinked a few times, and realized that the voice belonged to Nora, who was standing in front of him.

"Hey, Nora… where's Ren?"

"Meditating. Have you been here all night?"

He looked around the room, at the mess he'd managed to made within the short span of time.

"Jaune…"

"Yeah… so?"

"Jaune… we all miss Pyrrha, but… you need to get some rest."

"I've been resting."

"Not like this. Some REAL rest, that doesn't involve falling asleep at a table."

He looked back at the bed, the machine next to it beeping steadily as it had for however long she was here.

"This is good enough."

"NO, it isn't. Jaune, come back to the main area: I snuck in Ren's pancake mix and a waffle iron. We can have breakfast."

"No, I'm fine. I just want to be here."

She looked at the bed and began growling.

"Jaune," she screeched as she pulled him up by the shirt collar, "I know how you feel. We all do. But wasting away waiting for Pyrrha isn't going to help anybody!"

"I just"

"What?! You want to be here when it happens? Well, we all do, but she's been like this for weeks on end! Dammit, the doctors aren't even sure she'll wake up at this point! Face it, Jaune, we'll always love her, but you have to accept the possibility that… maybe we've lost her…"

He choked on the air as she added the last line, and looks down, unable to look his teammate in the eye.

"I know…" he mumbled, teary eyed. "I know… it's just… she's my partner… I want to be there for her, like she's always been there for me… I just can't give up like that, especially since… since…"

He paused. "Since I loved her."

Nora loosened her grip on him, and quickly drops him entirely, unable to look at him either.

"Sorry. It's been hard for all of us, but I can't imagine… if something happened to Ren…"

Turning around, she reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

"Take all the time you need… and let us know if anything changes."

...

The world was… bright. She could tell even before she opened her eyes that it was no longer night. Some machine was beeping next to her. And… there was a pain in her arm… she was shot in the chest though… what happened?

"Pyrrha!"

She could remember the scream. And Cinder… what happened? Was she dead?

"Pyrrha, please, answer if you can. Are you ok?"

She managed to open her eyes, and saw Jaune standing above her, crying.

"Pyrrha… oh, I'm so glad you're awake."

It was a strange sensation. Her lungs burned, her skin was in utter pain, her head was throbbing, her limbs felt disjointed, and her strength was fading at a decent rate… but Jaune was here. And alive.

"Yes, Jaune, I'm awake… what happened?"

"Well, Cinder was about to kill you, but then Ruby came in and used some weird power to freeze her. By the time we got other people up there, Cinder was gone, the dragon was frozen, Ruby was unconscious, and… I'm just so happy to see you awake!"

She felt herself smile. "I'm happy to see you too."

"I've been here as often as I could make it. Oh, you don't know how much I've missed you so much these past few months…"

She frowned and attempted to turn her head to see the calendar on her table. Months? But…

"Wait a minute, I have to call the rest of the team."

She could feel her strength fading faster at the thought of seeing her team again.

"Oh, boy, they'll be happy to see you awake, just you wait!"

"Jaune. Come closer for a moment." she called out as he was about to tap something on his scroll.

Her vision blurred.

"What is it?"

"I… I just wanted to say… thanks for staying so close."

"What? We've all stayed close by, we're a team! Remember? It's what we do."

She began smiling again, only to feel a sudden pain in her chest. She could hear the machine next to her begin beeping faster, causing Jaune to panic.

"Pyrrha?! Hey, PYRRHA! NO NO NO, HELP! WE NEED A DOCTOR IN HERE!"

She could faintly see him rush over to the door and continue yelling the same message.

"Jaune…"

"Yeah?! What is it?! What can I do?" he asked frantically as he came back and knelt next to her.

"Jaune… I'm sorry…"

"What? For what? You have nothing to be sorry about! I should be the one apologizing, it's my fault you're here!"

"No, don't blame yourself…"

Another bout of pain, beginning to give her a massive headache.

"No, it was my fault… I let you give yourself up for us. You were trying to do the right thing. You wanted to protect us."

"No, Jaune… at the time… I could only think about protecting you… I… I love you."

Her vision, which had been continually fading out, suddenly went dark.

"Pyrrha… I love you too… and I was stupid about it… I didn't realize I loved you until you left."

"You… you"

"I'm so sorry…"

She smiled through the pain.

"I'm so happy… Jaune… please… lean in a bit."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it…"

She waited, and heard him say "Ok."

With the last of her strength, she leaned forward, and gave him a kiss.

...

"JAUNE, WE HEARD YOU YELLING!" Ren cried out as he, Nora, and a doctor barreled into the room. They paused once they saw Jaune bawling on Pyrrha's bedside, the sound of a flatline underneath it all.

"Jaune…"

He looked up at them and sniffled, his eyes completely red.

"It's all my fault…"

...

"Jaune? You ready?" Ruby asked cautiously, poking him slightly in the arm.

He looked up, and saw that they were all staring at him.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure you want to do this?" Ren asked, motioning back to the house next to them. "You could always stay and help Yang recover, if you're still not feeling too well."

"No, I'm fine. I want to do this."

The three of them nod in unison, and they set off, marking the first step in their journey as team RNJR.

" _I'm so sorry… it's all my fault._ " he thought to himself as he looked at his enhanced armor and shield.

" _If only I was stronger… if only I was faster… if only…_ "

He looked ahead at the road, and back to himself, and his team.

" _I promise… I'll get back at those bastards for you. I'll make sure they pay for what they did._ "

 **...**

 **...**

 **And there we go! A little under three hours. Not bad, for my first challenge fic. Like I said, a bit darker than most romance fics, but I think it's ok. Again, thanks for reading, and please don't be salty over Pyrrha's death-anniversary. It was a tragic loss, and we'll all mourn, but don't spread hate over it.** **Also, the asterisked section: remember, at the time, everyone thought he was dead.**

 **Happy Valentine's Day, 2017!**


End file.
